If this article is correct it is disturbing in that they seem to have no solid and tested disaster recovery process (DR).
They don't appear to know about how to reimage computers quickly to put them back in action (also part of a tested and documented DR process).
They don't seem to know process of how to deal with these kinds of threats properly. And still let the virus reside on the system even though they do not know what it does and including the fact that the feed that they use is not always encrypted?
I will save the best for last; it makes no sense to use Windows systems (no matter what a contractor says )for this kind of work when there are very good Unix and Linux systems that can be built from scratch including of course good security behaviour you want built into the kernel.
Unreal. I hope the article is an exaggeration.
6 comments:
As noted Eric, there are plenty of reasons for concern. I find it incredible that even with multiple attempts to erase viruses, they keep coming back. Shouldn't that be a warning sign that something is seriously wrong? Also the whole key logger should be of concern since doesn't that reveal to an enemy types of commands and operations?
Given that the systems keep getting infected, it sounds like either they aren't up to date with their patches or the virus is exploiting one or more unpatched vulnerabilities.
Keylogging the systems could give an attacker passwords and other login details for the drones, along with enough input data to determine how to fly the drones through a compromised system. Worse case scenario would be the attackers hijacking drones mid-mission and hitting civilians, allied troops, Pakistani military, infrastructure, etc.
I don't know of the whole hijacking thing but my worry would be more along the lines of a foreign power(China?) gaining this sort of insider knowledge. Not use or disclose it for years and only use it as an element of surprise in conjunction with conventional attack on US forces, think how devastating that would be to see our own drones firing against our own troops.
What is this, amatuer hour?
Like wikileaks, where is the basic security or common sense.
In our organisation the USB ports are gone, no hardrives, all virtual, and every file encrypted and no files go anywher without authorisation , and we are a medium size commercial organisation.
Eric you are correct, our IT manager walks around muttering things like "microsoft is evil" etc.
Another example of the fallacy of the "last manned fighter" syndrome that's still inhabiting the US DoD.
As Nico correctly stated my fear is Chinese hackers gaining access to drone control systems and firing Hellfire missiles at our own troops.
As the technology is becoming advance more computer related problems are arising such as viruses, hard disk failure, and network problem. Hacking is also a major issue. Many people want to use for negative purpose so some important steps should be taken to control these problems.
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IT consultant Birmingham.
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